Second Draft - Reincarnated Into a Game in Impossible Mode

"There are 5... no, 6 people left..." - His face wrinkled as he corrected himself. As if something wasn't right.

So only a small group remained after that earth-shattering attack. They were flying in the air with the frame of an airplane created from blood.

"Wait a minute, our group only has 5 people." - That was Haruki's first reaction after hearing what the examiner said.

When Esther heard this, she also showed doubt and counted again. She raised her fingers while looking at each person. "Haruki, me, Charlotte, Katia, and Alan... there really are only five. So who is the sixth person?!"

Alan coldly looked around the "airplane." But he couldn't see anything. Katia was equally vigilant but the end result was the same.

Charlotte and Esther began to panic like their friend. "Who is the sixth person? That attack just now leveled the entire examination space. Could it be-"

Charlotte stated her observation and waited for someone to answer. But contrary to her expectations, she waited for a long time and no one opened their mouths.

Even the genius with an IQ of 219 said nothing. But it wasn't because he didn't know, it was because he didn't want to believe it was true: "I think either that person is invisible... or they're beneath us... And unfortunately, I'm leaning toward the second hypothesis... Miss Esther."

Sweat poured down Esther's forehead like a waterfall. She began to lean her head out of the airplane. Then, she took a deep breath to gather the courage to look down.

A strange figure was tightly hugging the body of the plane, appearing in her line of sight. Around him was a stream of black energy with some deep red inside. 'Wait a minute... that's Demon en-'

When he saw Esther, he gave a terrifying smile. "Everyone run!!! Demon energy!"

A strange voice quickly broke the gloomy atmosphere like in cheap horror movies. But Haruki didn't hesitate at all and reacted extremely quickly, jumping out of the plane immediately. In his hands were Alan and Charlotte, the two people closest to him at that time. The purple-haired princess soon caught up with the blue-haired boy's falling speed.

Haruki felt a bit more at ease when he saw that Katia had also jumped down after him. But there was only one person he hadn't seen yet. "ESTHERRRR!!!" - He screamed, seeming desperate.

If people hadn't realized it yet, all the students participating in this class placement test were in a different space. And according to Haruki's hypothesis, they were in a dream linked together. So when they died, they would simply wake up.

But... What if they didn't simply die but got caught in another nightmare?

That's right, that's what Demon energy would do here. That energy was also called Black Magic. It was forbidden because of its filthiness and ability to put dreamers into an eternal nightmare while gradually rotting their bodies.

Very quickly, he climbed into the cabin. Esther and that strange thing looked at each other. Her legs were currently paralyzed to the point where she couldn't stand, while it was getting closer and closer to her. "Stay away from me! You demon, don't get close to a noble like me." - Esther, with her final efforts, used her hands to drag herself to the remaining exit. She should have just deactivated the Blood Magic but in these moments, she became so panicked that she forgot that ability.

The dark energy from it was spreading farther and farther to the point that Kenzo also noticed it. He didn't stand still at all but stomped hard on the ground.

After that, his body seemed to fly in the sky. Kenzo found the position of that blood airplane and immediately took a stance.

He grabbed the hilt of his sword and streams of thunder Mana along with deep red Aura spread around again. But this time was perhaps the strongest ever. "I'll have to bend the rules in times like this..."

"Kaminari sword technique, third sword form."

The Mana stream this time, instead of forming a circle or cylinder, formed a vector arrow pointing to a specific location. "Lightning Medicine Advance."

In less than the blink of an eye, the surrounding space was completely torn apart. Teacher Kenzo had jumped onto the plane from a distance of over five hundred meters in just the blink of an eye.

But when he got there, he only saw that Demon energy and... an energy stream that should no longer exist. "Student Amemura?! What are you doing here? And where is student White?"

"Sir, she was killed by this demon... I've been hiding to find an opportunity to kill it but... because I'm too weak, I couldn't do anything."

"It's alright..." - The examiner immediately understood what the student said.

A painful expression appeared on his face. Perhaps regret... but quickly Kenzo calmed down again and focused on eliminating the enemy in front of him. "Student Amemura... listen to me, get out of here now! I must destroy it before it harms anyone else."

"Yes, sir!" - After hearing this, Ryoshu immediately jumped down.

The sword at his side flashed again and then he rushed up and slashed the demon repeatedly. It was so overwhelmed that it couldn't fight back at all.

But it couldn't give up like that, so it immediately exploded like a bomb with its own evil Mana stream.

He jumped back to avoid it. However, surprisingly, when the explosion occurred, an arrow appeared from behind the explosion and flew straight to where he was.

This had been his plan all along.

So to understand what just happened, let's go back a bit.

At a nearby spot, Ryoshu was standing on a square piece of blood floating in mid-air. 'Everything is still running smoothly so far... I never thought I could come up with such a perfect plan.' - On his lips now was a quite creepy smile. But very quickly, he removed his gloating smile.

"You did well, Esther. Now it's my turn to deliver the finishing blow." - After giving the girl behind him a compliment, he turned around and focused on his task.

The truth was that Esther wasn't harmed at all. Because he had just lied to the teacher to lure him into the trap.

Ryoshu had put on the arrogant girl's face his Stealth Mask, which was also what he had been wearing to hide until now. He had observed the battlefield and hadn't missed a single detail, like a tiger observing its prey.

Esther was currently focusing on controlling the Mana of both the airplane from before and now the floating blood platform they were standing on.

Her Mana was being burned continuously although it wasn't much to begin with. Because of that, her face looked terribly lifeless. "Whatever you're doing, do it quickly! I'm almost out of Mana!" - Esther urged Ryoshu with a whispered voice.

"Wait for me a bit."

In his hands were three different bows along with a spear. Most of them were things he had just picked up on the battlefield. 'The rules don't forbid using other people's weapons, right? Haha.'

Ryoshu summoned Fumiya immediately. "Fumiya... I know you can do this... swallow these three bows and turn them into a stronger bow!"

The sand that hadn't breathed air for a long time, instead of complaining, immediately jumped into action. It wrapped around those bows. And after a short time, a larger and more powerful bow appeared.

It had to be nearly twice the size of the bow that the academy had given to each student.

Ryoshu didn't hesitate and picked it up immediately. Fumiya, currently in the newly made bow, also helped its master pull the bowstring taut. The two pulled the string so tight that it was almost about to break.

Even with such complete support, his arm muscles were still too weak to pull and maintain it for long.

And when teacher Kenzo dodged the explosion from the demon, he was bound by Esther's tentacles from behind.

But he couldn't get out because he had used too much Mana for his technique earlier. Plus, since his main stat was now rank F, the pressure on his body was so strong that Kenzo was still in a state of exhaustion.

The rain had become heavier. It continuously hit the face of the boy.

However, Ryoshu didn't care about that at all. The bowstring had been pulled tight enough and the Heavy Strike skill had also been charged. He just needed to nock an arrow into the bowstring. 'But a normal arrow is too weak... and I'm not allowed to use Mana to hide my true strength... So I will-'

He summoned the spear he had picked up earlier. Ryoshu would use every method to increase the damage input to the highest possible. He activated the skill right when he nocked the spear into the bow. 'Time Bullet.'

And then two other skills to both increase the Critical Hit Rate and ensure it would hit him. 'Snipe... and Pierce!'

The head of the spear emitted a powerful energy of red mixed with golden yellow. 'This is all I have... no... there's still one trump card.' - Ryoshu aimed carefully at the examiner's heart. 'Reflection!'

With more than half the energy from the Revenge Necklace, the spear radiated such tremendous energy that Esther, who had been witnessing all along, was gaping. "How do you not have Mana but have such tremendous power?! This is nearly approaching the power of a D-rank!"

But Ryoshu couldn't answer anymore because his mind had almost fallen into an unconscious state.

Without further hesitation, he released the spear. A large amount of recoil appeared, immediately shattering Ryoshu's bones.

The wind, though blowing stronger and stronger, still couldn't change the absolute straight shooting direction of the spear.

Esther standing behind him wasn't much better because she was already almost depleted of Mana. Therefore, when receiving that large amount of pressure, she immediately flew back as well.

She immediately canceled her control of the floating blood platform. Blood drops splattered all over the sky.

But Ryoshu didn't pass out immediately and tried to reach for her. Fortunately, Ryoshu managed to grab the small and soft hand of the girl in time. Then, he pulled the smoke-white-haired girl closer to himself while they were both free-falling in the sky.

"I got you."

The wind blew on both of them, making their clothes and hair flutter like national flags.

Ryoshu looked straight into Esther's tired eyes that were about to faint. She was still trying to maintain control of the airplane, so her Mana was severely depleted.

She still hadn't said anything else. 'Is she still scared because of what just happened... Normally she would curse at me a lot. Do you feel humiliated now?!' - He only kept those words in his head. And just sighed once as if sympathizing with the weak girl just now.

Because Ryoshu couldn't bear to hurt someone who was so terrified.

Then a pile of sand named Fumiya appeared and embraced both of them. Thanks to that, the young man unconsciously hugged the girl gently into his arms. 'I'll punish Fumiya later...' - His heart was beating louder and louder because of this embarrassment.

Although Esther was tired, she was still aware of what was happening. Her face turned as red as a gac fruit. This was perhaps the first time she had been hugged by a boy like that. But because she didn't have enough strength to resist, Esther put her arms around his back and hugged him back.

"T-this time I'll let you off... Next time you do this, you're dead!" - Esther whispered very softly because perhaps she was feeling embarrassed.

"It's because circumstances forced us... I don't want... this either."

Now the outcome of the test was no longer important. Both of them were completely exhausted.

Although Esther still had a lot of questions, she decided to ask them thoroughly later. Ryoshu also saw this through her facial expression, he just misunderstood. 'Is she sad...? Or is she feeling pressure from her own failure?' - He remembered the plot, the things that would happen in the future, and his heart had been tinged with the blue of sadness since when, he didn't even know himself. 'It's true that even if you hate, you can't...'

Esther saw Ryoshu's sad face but didn't say anything either. She turned her face away to hide her embarrassment. But right after that, her heart skipped a beat. With the remaining strength, the boy in front of her had unconsciously hugged her tighter.

His head then rested on her shoulder with the least amount of pressure possible. After that, Esther could hear whispering in her ear. The proud and very adorable girl heard the gentlest words in the world from the person she didn't like at all.

"It's okay, Esther. Everything is over now."

And before they both passed out, Ryoshu managed to say the final gentle sentence, making Esther's sleep more peaceful. "You did well."

Or perhaps it was thanks to that warm embrace? Esther would never know. But at this moment, she didn't hate it at all.